Don't you just love those self-centred, self-righteous, selfish, egotistical morons who are better known as the bastions of Canadian business?
Those same greedy, corporate-welfare bums, who, when they aren't giving themselves unconscionable raises to their already unethically high salaries, are quick to point out how their employees must tighten their belts for the good of God, country and company.
I sure do.
So it was with little surprise that I read a quote from the newly unemployed head of Canwest Global Communications, Leonard Asper.
Remember him?
The guy who took his daddy's media empire and drove it into the ground so hard it ended up in the corporate wrecking yard.
Seems he's had an epiphany and now realizes what a grand group of people he had the opportunity to work with. But he's actually happy to be moving on to bigger and better things.
After announcing his resignation as Canwest CEO, Lenny offered this bon mot to his former employees.
"As I embark on a new path, I will be taking with me many fond memories from my years as CEO, most of which centre on the inspiring and talented people with whom I was fortunate enough to work," Asper wrote.
What he should have wrote is this: "As I embark on a new path, I will be taking with me many fond memories from my years as CEO, most of which centre on the inspiring and talented people with whom I was fortunate enough to put out of work."
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For as long as I can remember the hall of fame was a hallowed place.
It didn't matter what hall.
The fact it is place where the best of the best were honoured made them special for me.
As a kid I was fortunate enough to get to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Seeing the images and artifacts of all the greats I had only read about put me in awe of the Grand Ol' Game and its stars.
I felt as if I were walking on sacred ground. Just the names -- Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth, Harry 'The Hat' Walker, the Waner brothers, Big and Little Poison -- are enough to bring back memories of my favourite hall of fame.
Growing up almost next door to the Hockey Hall of Fame, this will probably seem almost sacreligeous, but it paled in comparison to the baseball shrine.
Maybe it had something to do with each hall's respective philosophy.
The hockey hall seems to have a philosophy of inclusion, while baseball does its best to keep people out.
And, rightly so.
What kind of a hall is it if slightly-better-than-mediocre gets you in?
Even good shouldn't be good enough to be included in a hall of fame. Great, the best of your generation, that's what these halls should honour.
But now, there are so many halls of fame, if you live long enough, there's a good chance someone will nominate you for at least one of them.
Every city, it seems has one. Every U.S. university, at least, seems to have one, and if you didn't think enough was already enough here's the kicker.
A recent news item reports that one of the most powerful people in fashion, Vogue's Anna Wintour, is headed to the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.
A magazine Editor's Hall of Fame, how thrilled she must be.
I just hope someone, some day nominates me for the Most Tolerant People in the World Hall of Fame.
